2011-05-31 - Like the Catastrophe of the Old Comedy
Log The Brooklyn Academy of Music has the distinction of being the oldest performing arts center in America, and has consistently entertained people with musical and theatrical acts. Tonight's show is a praised rendition of the highly depressing King Lear, unfortunately, not everyone who is a fan of the theatre is in the mood for a downer. Along with the more refined people who elect to come to the show tonight, come a few less than savory characters. All of them carrying exceptionally large bags. Naturally they are stopped by security, and that's when the guns come out flying and clown masks are adorned. Looks like the infamous Joker Gang has come to make the show a fair bit more exciting. The several shots fired to scatter the bag inspectors are the first sign of trouble, as no doubt reports calling for assistance start to show in various mediums of radio. With the number of metas who live about the city, maybe help could be closer than it seems. A curious alien happened to be amongst the people drawn in to see a show, even if it was a bit of a downer in setting. Zamin hears the gun shots as they happen, ducking with some people near the back before she heads for cover. Blue eyes peeking around the corner as people scatter. She blinks a few times, looking about for a quieter corner to disappear into. Could be very close indeed. Among the people in the audience today, having just taken their seats, are Elizraim and Terra. Elizraim's gotten a few annoyed looks from the other, rather formally-dressed people surrounding, but it was either wear the hoodie and look informal or don't wear the hoodie and be a very obvious metahuman, so ey's been putting up with the irritated looks of the people who think ey's not giving the occasion respect. Just before the gunshots happen, ey looks over at Terra, raising eir eyebrows. "Terra...there is a problem." And then? Yep, gunshots. Elizraim stands, looking back in that direction. "This is most irritating." Terra narrows her eyes. This is not good. "Elizraim...be careful." Of the secret identity, she means, as she starts to make her way towards the restroom. I'm going to change she sends to the kid. Because this is going to go south pretty fast, she's sure of it. "Listen people, tonight's show been cancelled because it sucks!" calls out a Skulls, a big guy who seems to be leading the Joker minions, "so courtesy of your friend, theatre enthusiast, Harley Quinn, there's a change in the bill." While Skulls is speaking, the other minions are moving along the aisles, aiming their guns at the people, while another group of minions is reaching for the huge bags they've been carrying, working at getting something out. "Instead of the overhyped downer, King Lear, tonight the Joker Gang brings you a brave new show that critics will no doubt praise for its special effects," as if on cue the group of minions in the back are now all in positions, six of them carrying flamethrowers, "it's called, Burning Down The House!" As Terra starts to leave, Skulls turns to look at her, stalling for a moment, before eventually announcing in his booming voice, "there will be no refunds, but if for some reason you don't think you'll enjoy our debut of Burning Down The House, you're free to go, just so long as you make sure not to get the fire department in our way!" With that, the group of minions down the aisles start firing at the roof, trying to scatter people, though the occasional shot does fly directly at the audience, which they don't seem really concerned about. While the shots are fired, the six armed with flamethrowers start to shoot everywhere, clearly the idea is to bring down this establishment for doing too many classical, boring, and unfunny performances. Elizraim sighs, nodding as Terra makes her move. Not another fire...ah, well. I shall heal, ey thinks. Acting every bit the panicky kid, ey runs as well, keeping hidden behind those members of the crowd that are moving--not hard to do when you only stand 4'8" tall. Quickly, ey makes eir way to the emergency exit, shouldering it open and running outside. Terra--and others with empathic senses--might notice quite a significant amount of some kind of energy flowing from the terrified crowd into Elizraim...more, Terra would note, than she's ever seen em take in before. Zamin peeks up from behind a seat, blue eyes taking in the sights before she ducks back down, "Aww." Getting a little trampled by others as she stays put, she appears to be huddling on the floor for the moment. A empath would be able to tell she isn't frightened by the fire. Terra makes it clear...out of sight she reaches into the bag she has with her. Time for a quick identity change...those flamethrowers are bothering her. As is Elizraim. Be careful. Don't overload there. She doesn't know if ey can, but... As Elizraim rushes out of the building along with many others of the people who leap at the chance to escape with their lives, ey may or may not note an individual outside far less in a rush to leave than most other, just a figure in a trench coat that seems to be pacing about across the street mindlessly while a crowd of people flees for their lives. "And on the 8th day, god said, let it burn!!!" Skulls shouts, laughing with amusement as the theatre building starts to catch fire and smoke billows in the air, the Joker's minions moving about thoroughly with their flamethrowers. Those with the guns in the meantime starts to make a game out of shooting into the fleeting crowd, gleefully injuring helpless civilians, commenting to one another, "I've never had so much fun in a theatre before! They should make us a regular act!" I am trying, Elizraim responds to Terra. It's a little difficult, with the massive load of fleeing civilians around, but Elizraim still manages to quickly find an abandoned alley nearby. Ey notes the trenchcoat-clad figure...but goal number 1 is stop anyone else from getting hurt...before the panic and terror levels rise so much that it starts to hurt...or worse. Ey's got a lot of excess energy already. And so, a short few moments later, ey returns, flying back in through the main entrance (can't have people noting the vigilante came from the same direction the little kid ran out, after all...even if several other people went that way too). The figure that returns is...much more impressive than the one that left. Depending on the person's level of psionic resistance, they'll either see a roughly late-teens/early-twenties form clad in a purple-and-gold hero outfit...or a perfect example of a creature of pure supernatural evil, from whatever religion or mythic lore they're closest to. "Mortals!" the being shouts, hefting a black-bladed spear. "Cease!" Eir hand glows silver for a moment, and a bolt lances out at one of the men firing into the crowd. Zamin undergoes a shift of appearance, most people that could see would note her black hair turning grey at first, her skin becoming greyish. She peeks over towards the closest thug with a gun, balling up a fist before she takes a swing at his kisser. Nice intimidation value. Panacea, while Elizraim plays distraction, heads for the obvious. The sprinkler system hasn't gone off yet, but there has to be a manual trigger for it reasonably readily available. Around here...somewhere. The chaos continues, flames holding on to the theatre and giving a hellish backdrop, smoke by now signals the danger and the sirens of the fire department can be heard drawing nearer from outside. But what seems like it would be a perfect day for the Joker's Gang soon starts to shift, Elizraim's return provides quite a disruption as some of the gunmen look at him fearfully. When ey shoots the bolt at one of their comrade who promptly collapses to the ground, they immediately drop their weapons and join the onrush of people still fleeing from the theatre, screaming in horror. The six operating the flamethrowers look nervous, but don't even pause, apparently their fear of whatever they face upon failure greater than what is presented here by Elizraim. Skulls looks to be the only one not truly impressed with Elizraim's arrival, as he looks up at the flying teen and shakes his head, firing a few rounds of bullets at em while looking at his underlings, "keep burning!!!" He screams at them, before noting a several of the gunmen scattering away, "are you freakin' kidding me!? It's just a damned kid! Why are you idiots running!? I'm telling Quinn!" But even Skulls bellowings don't help, those that were scared witless by Elizraim's arrival just can't be reasoned with. Zamin in the meantime catches a gunman distracted by Elizraim, and manages to knock him out with a well placed punch to the jaw. Two of his friends turn their aim on Zamin when they take note of it, "back away, or we'll shoot! W-we'll kill ya!!!" They clearly sound worried but still try to pose tough. Panacea's focus on saving the theatre pays off, as nobody pays her any heed with Elizraim and Zamin, giving her plenty of opportunity to slink on by and discover the manual trigger for the sprinklers. Sure the system was sabotaged before hand electronically, but Panacea's manual approach pays off as the sprinkler come alive, joining the streams of water from the fire trucks outside as they arrive on scene. "Cease! Or there shall be retribution!" Elizraim yells in return. Eir wings give a mighty flap, sending em swiftly sideways and out of the way of Skulls' bullets, and ey loops around, taking advantage of the high ceilings to give emself plenty of room to maneuver. Ey flies erratically throughout the room, and when ey thinks Skulls is open, ey suddenly swoops in at high speed, swinging the butt of eir spear at the man's gun to try to knock it away. Zamin for a moment blinks as the guns get pointed her way, looking down at them with a too calm giggle, "Oh, thank you for the warning." Her normal looking attire breaks away, a seamless grey costume filling out over her body. Zamin appears heedless to the threat as she walks towards the gun men, a set of claws forming on her finger tips before she manically smiles, sharp set of teeth shown for intimidation purposes, "Who's first?" Panacea frowns. She doesn't like this, and she's making a quiet circuit towards the three flamethrower dudes on her side. Careful...fire is something that hurts no matter how well you regenerate. Elizraim has the leader of the group handled...she trusts em to deal with it. Skulls proves to be the most capable of the thugs that took over the theatre and ruined the night's performance for everyone, but Elizraim is a meta and the differences are considerable. Before Skulls can react the weapon is knocked off his hands, causing him to growl at Elizraim and leap at em, trying to get his arms around the teen's neck in attempt to strangle em, "Why would a kid your age care about King Lear anyways!" The two gunmen training their weapons on Zamin are caught by surprise at her pleasantness, and go as far as to murmur a confused, "you're welcome," too stunned perhaps than to figure out good manners is not what the situation calls for. At the visual transformation the forming of claws and flashing of sharp teeth, one of the goons pushes his friend at Zamin and throws his weapon at her for good measure as he rushes to escape what surely is a losing effort, "thanks for dealing with the freak, Johnny, I owe you one!" The guys with the flamethrowers on the one side continue to try as hard as they can to empower the dying flames, while those on Panacea's side turn to face her, training their flamethrowers on her without firing, "think again, girlie, we've got fire!" They try and intimidate her into letting them be. Elizraim is caught just a bit off guard by the attack, not having anticipated that particular tactic. Ey puts a hand up to keep the hands from wrapping around eir throat. "I shall not attempt to explain to an illiterate cretin such as you!" Eir spear turns liquid-like, flowing back onto eir arm and forming into a bracelet...leaving eir other hand free to try to grab Skulls in return. That done...Elizraim lifts off...and, presuming ey's got a good enough hold, aims to ram the man back-first into the ceiling at high speed. Zamin grabs the thug thrown at her within her arms, bobbing her head out of the way of the weapon thrown, "Such a kind friend you have, good night." A helmet forms around her head from the same grey stuff as her costume, tilting her head back, then suddenly forward to try knock him out wit ha head butt. She doesn't seem to concerned about chasing the other thug, the helmet melting away to show her face again. Panacea goes forward...which they probably won't expect...but also down, trying to roll into their legs and tangle them. She's good...and she doesn't seem particularly afraid of the flamethrowers. The sprinkler system is sending plenty of water down...and for the benefit of straight males and gay women in the area, yes, her costume is damp. Ahem. "The eloquence! Parents bribed higher ups to get you in a good school, didn't they!?" Skulls seems to have the humor fitting one more prominent in the Joker's Gang, while struggling to strangle the life out of Elizraim. Unfortunately for Skulls, he did not anticipate on Elizraim taking off with him and soon he's rammed at high speed against the ceiling of the theatre, which under the ravaging flame and jets of water, causes a section of the roof to collapse, but at least Skulls seems to have been knocked unconscious. When a section of the ceiling collapses from Skulls receiving first class seat in the ceiling express courtesy of Elizraim, the three thugs with the flamethrowers all on their own, simply stop their effort and flee. Their field leader is down, a friend of theirs betrayed another to some monster, and it looks like the fire department and sprinkles are overpowering their attempts to burn the place, a lost cause, they just escape. "AARRRGGGGHHHHH!!!! LARRY YA B******!!!!" Poor Johnny screams in horror while he finds himself thrown into Zamin's arms, flailing and terrified, he doesn't even attempt to fight, and before he can even start begging, Zamin knocks him out with a helmeted headbutt. Even if all of the chaos going around didn't provide distraction enough, the three flamethrower wielding men certainly have eyes and are not at all too bashful given a chance to stare rather openly at Panacea's fetching presentation for justice, her forwardness as well is unexpected, and they are soon taken down like bowling pins as Panacea rolls at their legs, leaving them cowering on their backs, a few errant jets of flames escape from their weapons, as they scream, "let us go and we won't burn you!" The fire in the meantime is brought fully under control, and is well in the processes of dying, firemen breaking into the theatre to finish the work they've been diligently doing from outside. Feeling eir opponent pass into unconsciousness, Elizraim sighs. "My parents were the higher-ups," ey says quietly to no one in particular. "Perhaps if you valued the arts, you would not now be in such a state." So saying, ey flits just a little bit lower, and then unceremoniously drops Skulls (though ey does at least have the decency to make sure the man won't land on his head or neck). "Panacea. Do you require aid?" Eir hands have begun to glow silver again. Zamin drops the thug to the ground gently, giving the unconcious man a pet on the forehead before she heads towards the stage in a rush. She stands just infront of the stage, tapping her claws on the edge, "These gents do seem the thick type. " Zamin's claws retract into human finger nails, the sharp teeth becoming a human set of teeth, "And the police would not be too far behind the gents bringing the fire under control. Surrender is a options clowns." Panacea rolls to her feet. "Drop your weapons," she informs the clowns. "Or I'll take them." She's a slip of a girl, but she's clearly well trained for this. The water is still coming down from the ceiling, of course, although starting to taper off now the fire is under control. Skulls crashes to the ground without much fanfare, there's no doubt it will be a long while before he causes chaos anywhere. The rest of the theatre, though in shambles, is pretty much cleared of the villains who ruined the show, with only damage left in their wake. The three on their backs, flamethrowers in hand, are left in a very obvious hopeless situation. There's Panacea, who just got them on their backs, Zamin who did god knows what to Johnny judging by his screams before he was silenced, and that horrific looking Elizraim took care of Skulls, so ey's clearly way out of their league. Sighing in exasperation, the three bemoan their fate, as they drop their weapons, "they'll take us to the slammer, won't they?" "A better result than if it were left to my decision," Elizraim says, as the silver glow fades again. The bracelet on eir arm turns liquid-like, and flows back into spear form. "Panacea...I believe I saw someone who may have been involved. I shall go to search." The person's probably long gone now, but nevertheless, ey must try. Ey flies back outside, looking about for the trenchcoated figure. Zamin smiles a little when the men decide to surrender, yet keeps an eye on the thugs for now, "It is a possibility, more likely then getting away with damages infront of witnesses." She looks over to Panacea briefly, trying to place where she may have seen her before. Zamin otherwise stays out of the way. "Oh, I'm sure they will, but probably better the slammer than getting yelled at by your boss." Or fed to Elizraim, in eir scary demon form. not that Panacea doesn't see em as perfectly normal. "Be careful," she tosses after the demon. Outside, Elizraim finds no trace of a trench coated figure, while inside, the three thugs surrender completely, leaving the theatre standing, if somewhat worse for wear. Only a few members of the audience were injured, no lives were lost, and all in all the theatre did prove to be the grounds for a good show, the climax proving to be the heroes that once again answered the call to protect the city and its citizens, regardless of government sanction. News Posting In recent weeks the Brooklyn Academy of Music has been showing the latest rendition of King Lear on stage, but tonight's performance was interrupted when the Joker's Gang crashed the theater. Brandishing flamethrowers, the criminals announced their intentions to light up the show, as they proceeded to burn the theatre, thankfully allowing people to flee. While they largely allowed people to panic and scramble for safety, several people were injured with light to moderate injuries as a result of scattered shootings. Fortunately several metahumans were on hand to deal with the criminals. While none were on scene when the smoke cleared up, eyewitness account described a fetching woman in a silvery costume (Panacea), a greyish looking woman who seemed to terrify the thugs (Zaminthi) and several accounts of a monster or demon, but all descriptions were conflicting (Elizraim). Thanks to the combined efforts of the heroes on hand, along with the city's fire department, 7 members of the Joker's Gang were apprehended, and the theater while in need of renovations survived the attempt to burn it down. The Joker was not on scene, and at one point a reference was made by one of the thugs to 'Quinn', although the former Arkham doctor was not on scene. Strangely enough, after all the chaos of fire fighting, securing civilians and preventing panic in the streets, it turns out one of the fire trucks went missing. Category:Logs